‘Silence’ Trailer: Scorsese’s Longtime Coming Epic

November 23rd, 2016 by Caffeine Powered

So, like. Apparently Scorsese has been working on Silence for a while. That’s, uh, cool? I’m going to level with you — this trailer does nothing for me, and I’m actively appalled at Andrew Garfield’s continuously terrible accents. But, hey, that may just be me.

The last time we got a taste of Martin Scorsese at the theater, it was with the debauchery of The Wolf Of Wall Street. He also directed the pilot for Vinyl, but let’s not talk about that. Now he’s leaving all the cocaine and sex behind to travel back to 17th century Japan for Silence a spiritual journey featuring Andrew Garfield and Liam Neeson. It’s the first time we’ve seen Scorsese out of his comfort zone since Kundun in 1997 and his first period piece since The Age of Innocence in 1993 and just based on looks alone, it might be another in line for awards consideration. Here’s the official synopsis:

Martin Scorsese’s SILENCE tells the story of two Christian missionaries (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver) who face the ultimate test of faith when they travel to Japan in search of their missing mentor (Liam Neeson) – at a time when Christianity was outlawed and their presence forbidden. The celebrated director’s 28-year journey to bring Shusaku Endo’s 1966 acclaimed novel to life will be in theaters this Christmas.

As you can see at the end of the description, it’s a passion project nearly 30 years in the making for Scorsese. Sometimes these projects consume a director, like Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis or Heaven’s Gate from Michael Cimino, but sometimes they work. This will hopefully be one of them given the cast, the setting, the director. It has certainly paid for Scorsese in the past with Gangs of New York.